DF Advanced Workshop, Dolichopodid flies 2-4 Mar 2012

This course was over-subscribed and we had to take over the adjacent common room with bar in it as well to fit everyone and their microscopes in! The nearness of the bar was a great joy according to some....Tutors were Martin Drake and Roy Crossley who worked tirelessly to assist those of us continually stuck in the keys (like me). As always we had the great benefit of reference specimens from the Dolichopodid section of the Diptera collection from Liverpool Museum, brought specially by Richard Underwood. Well, those long-legged flies with their fancy leg appendages of odd bristles and flags are not quite such a mystery now. I tried for a photo of the very rare and famous fly Dolichopodid fly with the most amazing set of appendages on the legs of the males you could ever imagine (Campsicnemus magius) - how on earth did it walk, let alone fly, with those funny things on its legs? Presumably female C. magius think these are the best thing since sliced bread! The course was greatly enjoyed by all and I hope the following photos give just a flavour of things - hard study, but lots of fun as well. A big thanks to Roy and Martin. Judy